Some time ago, I studied how to do self landing with Slingshot RPM - I got help from two particular videos (www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Kv and www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1hk and I can almost understand why/how to do it. By my experience the steps are:1. Make sure there are no obstacles downwind from the spot where you plan do self land.2. Make sure you are not overpowered or the wind is not too strong - in case it is true then dont self-land.3. Depower the kite4. Lower it close to the ground at the side of the wind window.5. Drop the kite to the ground and at the same time pull one of the middle lines, the one that attaches to the upper part (in relative to the ground) of the kite, the one that is close to the upper steering line. Also at the same time taking a few steps towards the kite.6. If anything goes wrong be prepared to use the safety system..... any specifications?

Now, the question of hindsight, water relaunching. If your feet touch the bottom, or the wind is strong, no problems arise. However, when it comes to deep water/with little wind - so what exactly are the actions and in which order i need to perform? Is there perhaps a good video available on water relaunching RPM or for a analog system? Is such a thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ300chztTY?T=6s is doable, even if you dont have a board, and your feet do not reach the bottom - if yes, then how?

Last edited by JaanTatikas on Thu Jul 18, 2013 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

I used to have a Rpm and I did everything you said there. I lowered the kite close to the ground and pulled the upper middle line and the kite just looped the other way and slammed in to the ground. Did you get these problems or am I doing it wrong?

When doing a light wind start try to swim towards the kite to cause it to tip on to its back and then pull on a steering line. This is what I found to be the best light wind launch tecknique.

Kites with square wingtips (like the RPM) are more difficult to self land. They tend to fly back in the window before they can tip over the front corner of the wingtip. Didn't have that problem with triangular wingtips.

I haven't found a solution yet... maybe a more agressive and long pull on the frontline, or walking upwind while pulling to get the kite beyond the window. Can imagine there are some risks involved doing that...

best way to self land is use the quick release. Or if for some reason you don't want to do it that way, put the kite on its tip on the ground. Unhook your leash entirely and take off your chicken loop hold it in one hand. Now grab the bottom line, let go of the chicken loop, keep tension in that line and walk to the kite -- stay a bit upwind of the kite so it stays in a U position. This is equivalent to throwing the quick release manually. As for light wind launching, reverse launch is a good technique but if it's so light even that doesn't work grab a center line and the opposite steering line and give them a good yank, the kite will flip around into a hotlaunch position. Swim backwards to tension the lines, and then grab both center lines, and rhythmically tug them so it flies up like a jellyfish. These techniques are good for a control bar with a V like the RPM has. For a Y or 5th line you will want slightly different techniques.

Self landing like this, at least in my experience has nothing to do with how much power you have, but how strong the wind actually is. If it's over 18-20 knots it becomes very very difficult with many kites to self land with this method, and it is safer to flag the kite.

It depends a lot on the kite though, I actually find square wingtips to be better. I've never been able to land my 2013 envy 9m, because it relaunches so well, when i am trying to land it wants to roll over and fly. Have the same "problem" self-launching.... I have to be very very careful that it doesn't roll over before I want it to or it might fall on its back because it's in the wrong part of the window. Of course the tradeoff is that it relaunches amazingly in the water

when i was flying c kites it was less of a problem self-launching and landing no matter what the wind is, I think just because it is a little easier to sit upright on the ground

Simple way for landing is to fly it toward the ground at medium speed and when the kite is a kite width from the ground pop the Q/R to flag it onto the upper front line.You do have to know which side to land it to so the flagging line is the upper line.

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